Are you efforts to mitigate the disease mainly focused on communities in sub-Saharan Africa? If so, what is the process to enable ongoing access to Ebola prevention, testing, and management on ground in these communities.

Thank you so much for your kind words and the great question! If we use the right starting cell type, we can theoretically produce any target cell type of interest. For instance, we use red blood progenitor cells, which are what we refer to as 'lineage-committed' - so they can only mature into red blood cells and not other cell types in the blood tissue. However, the technology we are developing could use any starting cell type from the blood tissue - so if we were to use haematopoietic stem cells (not lineage-committed), we could potentially produce other cell types in the blood tissue such as white blood cells and platelets.

Can you please explain why Ebola isn't thought of as "a serious threat" to most of the modern world?

Corollary... What makes the virus so virulent in places such as Africa, where it would likely not become a problem in countries such as the US?

Sorry if this is a bit off topic.

It's pretty cool to see chemical engineeers working on something that is in the scope of biology. Although in today's world cross-disciplinary projects are pretty common. Do some of you have a background in biology or any other department? If so then why did you end up working specifically on this project? And also if you aren't from a biology background then did you have to learn it like in a classroom?

I'm not knowledgeable enough to ask the 'how' questions here but I'd like to ask the what why and when

Yes, absolutely! It is the key aim of using technologies such as the bioreactor. We start with a small number of stem cells or progenitor that have the capacity to divide and give rise to more stem/progenitor cells, under the right conditions. Once we get enough starting stem/progenitor cells, we then modify the bioreactor conditions to promote their maturation (also known as differentiation) to form red blood cells. Our research aims to identify these best conditions to grow and mature these cells within bioreactors, as well as the starting cell number and final cell numbers we can get from the bioreactor.

How does the ongoing response to Ebola differ now compared to several years ago when we learned of major outbreaks in Africa?

Thanks for lending your expertise this morning! When there is a confirmed case of Ebola, what is the protocol of containment and do people who came in contact with the infected also have to follow that protocol?

 Great question, thank you! It is both cutting edge and doable, however, currently it is expensive to mass produce them to be used in the clinic for blood transfusions. We can make a few millilitres in the lab, but existing technology does not support making 'units' of blood in a cost-effective manner (compared to donated blood costs). So you're correct - one of our key research aims is to design a 'bioreactor' technology that will make the red blood cell manufacturing process more efficient and hence cost-effective.

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are there ties to socioeconomic status and contracting ebola virus? If so, what are they and what is being down to mitigate that?

Has the recent COVID-19 pandemic since informed any improvements or changes to the way Ebola outbreak is addressed?

>This is very cool research that can impact so many lives! Thanks for the work that you do.
>
>My question is: Is it possible to also differentiate stem cells to other types of blood cells like platelets and white blood cells?

Hello, thank you for the great question! The starting cell type, known as BEL-A cells (developed by scientists at University of Bristol) that we work with, have been succesfully matured into red blood cells that are similar to native red blood cells found in the body - their biological signature and performance (e.g. oxygen-binding capacity) are comparable. Our aim of designing 'bioreactors' to mass manufacture these cells will be followed up with a list of criteria that we will check against to make sure that our bioreactor-produced cells are comparable to native red blood cells.

What is your role in managing the current threat of Ebola?

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Could it be possible to engineer red blood cells that are more efficient than the naturally occuring ones in our bodies? Would the cells you are engineering be identical to natural ones, or more/less efficient?

Will you be growing RBCs that are universal donor or the blood type is random?

Why RBC? Is it an easier cell to make or is the demand that high that justifies it?

Does these RBC have blood type? Can they be tailored to fit all blood type?

How important is this bioreactor in the process, as if without it it is impossible to make RBC? Solve one issue of many in the creation process? Lower the cost for "mass manufacturing"?

After this is done, what would be the cost of making one "serving of blood" (sorry I dont know what would be a better word) needed in a hospital setting?

This is very cool research that can impact so many lives! Thanks for the work that you do.

My question is: Is it possible to also differentiate stem cells to other types of blood cells like platelets and white blood cells?

is the yield greater than the input? that is, is it possible to get more stuff out of a bioreactor than you put in in such a way that it's viable for large scale use?

Is the practice of artificially growing and maturing Stem Cells into RBCs just cutting edge research or something currently doable on large scale?

Hi! This is fascinating. How similar are the red blood cells you grow in a lab to real human blood cells? Is it possible to grow cells that are identical to real red blood cells?

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Why am I so fat?

How many people are in your movement?

Let’s fix corruption first.